SculptureCypriot6th-5th century BCE

Bearded Head of a Votary

late 6th-mid 5th century BCE

Description

This statue head, broken off at the neck, represents a bearded man wearing a conical hat. The eyes, indicated by shallow raised relief, are wide and flat. The wide nose is poorly preserved; only the proper right nostril remains. The cheeks are rounded. The mustache connects to the beard, and has an indentation for the philtrum. There is no upper lip; the lower lip is thick in the center, suggesting a slight smile. The beard, which connects to the hair at either temple, is indicated by raised zigzags. The bottom of the beard is uneven, suggesting it was longer originally. A line of thick curls runs across the forehead. An additional curl is front of the ear on either side. The ear on the proper right is now preserved. The ear on the proper left is modeled in sunken relief. A thick mass of hair extends down the back of the neck. The man wears a conical hat with a narrow tip at the top. A band circles the brim of the hat, and two more bands run from the front to the back on either side, probably representing earflaps which have been folded up. One more band circles the tip of the hat and overlaps at the front; this is probably the strap used to secure the earflaps. The distinctive hat worn by this figure is a common feature of Cypriot sculpture of the Cypro-Archaic period (c. 750-480 BCE) (1). It is generally thought to be a ceremonial rather than a military headdress, since the full body statues that feature it wear a tunic and mantle, rather than armor (2). The snail curls that peek out from underneath the front of the hat occur especially on statues of the late sixth century (3); the rendering of the beard, however, has more in common with a statue head of mid-fifth century date (4). It is thus most probable that this head dates to the late sixth to early fifth century BCE. Like much of the surviving stone statuary from ancient Cyprus, this statue is most likely a votive that was dedicated in a temple. It is unknown where or to what god it was dedicated. Several of the major known sanctuaries on Cyprus have inscriptions naming Apollo or Reshef, a Phoenician god with whom Apollo was identified (5), and it is a good possibility this statue was dedicated to him as well. NOTES: 1. A. Hermary and J. Mertens, The Cesnola Collection of Cypriot Art: Stone Sculpture (New York, 2014) 30-41. 2. G. Markoe, “A Bearded Head with a Conical Cap from Lefkonico: An Examination of a Cypro-Archaic Votary,” Report of the Department of Antiquities, Cyprus (1987) 119-20. 3. E.g. Metropolitan Museum of Art 74.51.2847 and 74.51.2849 (Hermary and Mertens, op. cit., nos. 17-18); University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology MS5674 (I. B. Romano, Catalogue of the Cypriot, Greek, and Roman Stone Sculpture in the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology [Philadelphia, 2006] no. 15). 4. British Museum 1867,1010.28; F. N. Pryce, Catalogue of the Sculpture in the Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities of the British Museum, Vol. I Part II: Cypriote and Etruscan (London, 1931) no. C156. 5. Markoe, op. cit., 123-4.

Classification

Sculpture

Technique

Carved

Medium

Limestone

Culture

Cypriot

Period

Archaic period to Classical

Century

6th-5th century BCE